This invention relates to a power transmission, and more particularly to a reversible, variable speed, power transmission.
In construction machinery and in recreational units such as off road vehicles, there is need for a reversible power transmission with variable speed control. Often such vehicles are slow moving (9-21 mph) and must be towed to the area of use, which may cause damage to the gear train.
The present invention comprises a novel transmission useful in construction machinery and recreational vehicles. In accordance with the present invention, a power transmission has a pair of axially spaced, selectively actuable brakes each including fixed stator disks and rotor disks. Two ring gears each having gear teeth on the inner and outer surfaces with the outer teeth enmeshed with the inner teeth on the rotor disks. An input shaft carries a driving sun gear. An output shaft is aligned with the input shaft. A cage carried by the output shaft has two arrays of idler pinion gears journaled in the cage with the first array driven by the sun gear and driving the second array. Each pinion of the first array is enmeshed with teeth on the inside of one of the ring gears, and each pinion of the second array is enmeshed with teeth on the inside of the other ring gear.